Steele Hard Truth
by Jhsteele
Summary: Remington and Laura have reached the time when they feel they must talk to their children about the history of the agency and Remington's past.


I find writing about our favorite couple and their family a great deal of fanciful fun. But there's an area that would need to be touched on that could/would be a real challenge for Remington and Laura. At some point in time, they would need to tell their children something of their father's history and the history of the agency. How to do that and when, would be two questions. Then there's the matter of too much information versus too little. Tell them what they need to know, when you think they need to know it. After that, supply asked for information. The truth can at times be overwhelming, as we saw often in the series. I believe, as parents, these two would have taken the job of parenting very seriously, and they would see this as part of their job.

This is my take on how they might have handled the situation. Agree or disagree. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Disclaimer: These wonderful characters belong to MTM and this story is purely for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement intended.

2012

 **Steele Past**

Mr. Steele heard the light tap and watched his wife come through the door to his office, closing it softly behind her. Even though he'd given her no real reason for concern, he could see it on her face already. "What's up?" He'd heard those words many times from her and had been called on to supply an answer. This time, however, he felt the weight of the answer was going to call into play all he and his terrific partner could muster.

Laura came around the desk and gave her husband a kiss. "I needed that." And then pulled her back for another. He spoke quietly and motioned for her to sit down. He knew he didn't have to tell her something was going on.

He leaned forward on his desk. "Jackie Crawford came through our agency door earlier today." Remington's voice was level as he shook his head and chuckled to himself. "Do you remember Jackie?" Pausing his raised eyebrows called out the question. "Streetwise." He could see his wife's mind at work as she spun that name and description through her own amazing memory of so many past cases. "Young pickpocket."

Laura straightened stiffly as that name with a face fell into place in her memory. "What in the world brought him here?" She clearly had Jackie and that entire case pinned down in her mind. "The last time we saw him he was in his teens."

"Yes, I kept in touch with him for a time and then nothing." Steele's hands went into the air. He smiled softly. "Do you know what he does for a living now?" He pulled at his ear lobe.

Laura simply shook her head no.

"He's works for Homeland Security, in customs specifically. Jackie didn't say a great deal about his job, but I'm betting he's very high up in the bureaucratic web." Remington smiled. "Think about it. Someone trying to smuggle something in and he has the job of figuring out what and how."

Steele paused and then straightened in his chair. "But the point is, he's working on the east coast where he's lived for years, just happened to be in LA, saw an article in the paper about the agency and thought he'd stop past and renew old ties." He let out a long breath.

"So you happened to be the one here in the office." Laura spoke as her eyebrows went up. "Alone?"

"Yes." Her husband cleared his throat. " And I'm not suggesting that a conversation with . . . " he motioned with his hand, "anyone else might have created a problem."

Laura extended her hands, stretching. "But our son could have easily been here and with a comment or two, and a well placed question . . ." She stopped what she was saying and took a deep breath. "Braden is very good at details and is extremely curious."

"Wonder who he takes that after?" He spoke the fact almost to himself. "We've known this time was coming, thought about it and talked about it." Remington drummed his fingers on the desk, pushed the chair back, stood up and moved over to peer out through the curtains.

Laura watched him, noting the stiffness in his shoulders, as she spoke to his back. "We're as ready as we can be, and I think the time is now. They need to hear this from you and I."

"Waiting any longer could undermine what we want to do." Remington came around to the front of the desk and leaded back against it. "I don't want to allow unforeseen circumstances to bring all of this to the surface." He shook his head speaking, "Something like this morning's experience could have done just that."

Laura looked at the expression on her husband's face and recognized it mirrored her feeling. How many times in their long ago past had the truth seemed such a vapor that couldn't be pinned down? First, one piece popped up and then another. The uncertainty it created was at times almost paralyzing. She was drawn back into the room by the sound of her husband's voice.

"No one knows better than I what harm comes from people holding back the truth. I want to use that experience to provide Braden, Kathryn and Jillian with what I wasn't given, and hope for the best." Closing his eyes, he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"They deserve nothing less from both of us. This thread really has no stopping point once it begins to unravel." Laura got up and walked over to where Remington stood. "We're in this together. There are no sides to be taken and no loopholes. After all, if you and I both had been given the truth of each of our family's situations years ago, it would have spared some of the pain and provided us with some of the answers we had to get the hard way. Or were never even allowed to get."

Realizing how quiet Remington had become, she continued. "There will be no turning back." She reached for his hand and looked at it carefully, as she had so many times over their years together. "We have to trust they will sort through it all and come out understanding what an amazing dad with a very tender heart, they have."

"And how resourceful, intuitive and dedicated their Mother is." He looked at his wife remembering the number of times they really had to face a challenge as true partners trusting each other. He wasn't sure, but that this challenge put more on the line for them than some of the life threatening moments they had encountered.

 **Steele Present**

The kitchen at the Steele house was emanating a great aroma as Kathryn Steele and her sister Jillian rounded the corner. "Smells like we got here at just the right moment." Jillian reached across the island for a wonderful warm piece of ciabatta and dipped it into the olive oil herb dip her dad was still holding.

Kathryn came around the island and greeted her mother with a hug. Then placed a kiss on her dad's cheek. "Give me points for a proper greeting before reaching for that wonderful bread." She smiled as she took a warm piece of the bread.

Jillian looked over at her older sister wrinkling her nose. "Brownie points!" Then she too gave her mother a hug.

As she was about to dive into the dip again, her dad spoke to her. "How about me? Don't I rate a greeting?"

Laura looked over at Remington and said, "I'll give Braden a call and see how soon he'll be here." He answered with a nod and gave his attention to his daughters. "Coming up to the house now." Laura put down her phone and turned to begin to herd the group into the family room. "We'll come back to the food later."

As they got comfortable in the family room, they heard the front door open and the clatter of keys as they landed on the entry table. "We're in the family room." Laura's voice guided their son into the room.

Braden looked at his watch. "Right on time." He let his nose check the air. "What's that delicious smell? Dad?"

"Something for later. Just now we need your undivided attention." Laura motioned for him to take a seat and Braden sat down on the couch beside his mother leaning into her with a kiss on the cheek. Eyeing his sisters sitting in two very comfortable chairs across from him, he nodded to them both with a smile. "Steele sisters."

As Laura got to her feet, Braden seemed to pick up on the tension emanating from his parents. "Whoa! The last time I remember a scene like this, all three of us kids were driving and one of us had just gotten a ticket for speeding." He looked over at Jillian. "What have you done?"

Before Jillian could take her brother to task, Laura cleared her throat. "No one has done anything, but your dad and I need to talk to all of you together and need you to listen." The expression on her face and tone of her voice told them she meant business.

Kathryn jumped in. "Are you two ok?" She gave he parents a steady gaze.

Remington nodded sitting in a spot to the side that let him watch them all. "We're fine. We just need you to listen carefully for a time and please, no questions till we are done."

With that comment from their dad, the three sets of sibling eyes looked at one another, then at both parents with a fixed gaze.

Laura began to pace. "You know I came out of Stanford with a degree in math, but I wanted something different, something exciting, so I worked hard to get my PI license and opened my own agency. 'Laura Holt Detective Investigations.' But there were no customers. No one wanted to hire a female detective to do a 'man's job'." Laura used her hands to indicate the quotation marks. "So in a short time, I closed that agency, and decided to open another." Laura took a deep breath. " This time I needed to have a male boss to compete in the world of private investigation so I decided to . . . create one. I created a boss who didn't exist and called him . . . Remington Steele."

There was a moment of dead silence and then, "Wha . . .?" Laura signaled Braden to stop with a sharp motion of her hand, and a serious look in her eyes. "With Murphy Michaels and Bernice Foxe working along side, I rented the suite at Century Plaza and worked hard to give the impression that my boss was the very masculine, capable Remington Steele. It wasn't easy, but it began to work. The business began to grow." Laura continued to pace, clearly choosing her words carefully. "As it grew, the cases became more numerous and significant. In the fall of 1982, the agency was hired to protect the rarest gems in the world, Royal Lavulite. That was the kind of challenge that would provide publicity and credibility, and would move the agency out of red ink and into the black." Laura stopped pacing a moment and straightened. Looking at her husband, she continued as her voice softened. "Then the office door opened and everything changed. A tall, slender, extremely handsome man walked into the office introducing himself as Ben Pearson and telling us those gems we'd been hired to protect had, in fact, been stolen and the South African government wanted them back."

Laura looked away from her husband as she began to pace again. "Two facts matter here. The gems had indeed been stolen and the man who said he was Ben Pearson was not." Now Remington recognized his wife had gone into PI mode as she started ticking off the points that needed to be heard. "In a short time, we learned that while this man wasn't Ben Pearson, we couldn't find any trace of who he really was. At the same time, this impersonator had discovered that there was in fact, no Remington Steele. This mystery man quickly stepped into the role of Remington Steele and strangely enough helped me retrieve the stolen gems." Laura's voice softened. "From that point on, he took on the role of Remington Steele. And over time, along with many growing pains, he learned a great deal, taught me much and we became a first rate team."

Laura cleared her throat. "But this man we called Remington Steele was a man with . . . no name, and not just unknown to me but unknown to himself." She walked over and sat on the arm of the chair her husband was in. He looked up at her knowing she was passing the baton to him.

Remington remained seated and cleared his throat. "As you know my ancestry is Irish, and as best I know my mother died at my birth or very shortly after. My father wasn't there. I know nothing of his life at that time. Family, aunts, uncles, cousins saw to my care and passed me around as they saw the need. I never knew what my name was and given the circumstances doubt my mother ever gave me a name." He paused and cleared his throat. "Each household gave me a different name, some no doubt, to provide the government with proof of the need for financial assistance with another child to feed." He looked at the faces of his children knowing this unbelievable truth was as hard for them to hear, as it was for him to speak.

As Laura listened, she felt the old pain all over again. She noted the color seemed to be draining out of Kathryn's face and Jillian's hands were gripped into two fists beginning to show white knuckles. Braden's face was an absolute blank.

"When I was old enough to understand that I was creating an additional burden to those people . . . I left . . . struck out on my own. At that point in time, there were many things to be done that would earn you a bit of money, and through that time I never stayed long in one place." He paused a moment and seemed to be trying to keep his focus on what he was saying. "Eventually, I made my way to London and as I got older I actually saw a good bit of the world, all the time trying different professions. The travel and various jobs actually provided me with experiences that have helped me at the agency. Occasionally, in all this time I would ask any one from the part of Ireland where I spent early years, for any information about the man who was my father." His voice seemed to waver a bit. " But even when it seemed I might be close to finding an answer, nothing ever came of it."

Even in the pauses now, there was complete silence and no one offered to say a word. Laura moved her hand to her husband's shoulder and let it rest there. "By 1982, I had learned much from experience." Remington's voice seemed to pick up resolve. "The money to be made from 'a finder's fee' was substantial and I was indeed after the gems that had been stolen in South Africa when I stepped into your mother's agency and her life." He slowly shook his head. "It all changed right there."

Steele reached for his wife's hand lying on his shoulder. "Your Mother has told you that case was resolved, and I'm still unclear on the initial reason I chose to stay, and insert myself in her business and her life." He looked up at his wife. "I created a good bit of turbulence in the beginning, but the role of Remington Steele was no longer the act of a mythical illusion, although at times I think you wished to go back to your fathom creation."

Laura smiled weakly. "Those early days were quite the challenge, but from the start the instincts and life experiences your dad brought into the agency were amazing. I'm pressed to admit on any number of occasions, he solved a case without even realizing what he had done."

"There was definitely a good bit of fumbling around on my part, but as you all know your mother is a good teacher and she taught me constantly." Steele looked at his wife. "She still does. Shortly after we were married, a case took us to Ireland where we encountered a man who had been in and out of my life for a number of years. His health was failing and as misfortune would have it he died . . . he died shortly after telling me he was, in fact, my father. There were things your mother found in his personal belongings that seemed to confirm that as the truth."

Laura and Remington looked at their children. "We didn't feel you needed to hear this until you were old enough to understand." She cleared her throat. "Your father was denied essential truths in his early years and we didn't want you, any of you, to come upon this by accident."

Kathryn, whose face was lacking in color, spoke right from her heart and to the core of what she had just been told. "Dad, how could anyone, absolutely anyone do what your family did to you as a child?" With each word her rage grew. "You don't pass a child around like a football and these people were . . . they were family? Family! I can't . . . How did you . . . " She propelled herself from her seat and into her dad's arms. Remington caught her and held on as she began to sob.

Laura could hear her husband speaking very softly to Kathryn. "It's ok. It's ok. I'm fine."

Jillian appeared at a loss for words, mesmerized, watching her always calm, cool, collected, older sister coming unglued. "Wow, I can't even get my mind around all of this." She seemed to be talking to herself. "On the one hand, we've got the agency my mother seemed to create out of thin air, and on the other hand we've got Dad who never truly knew what his name was." Jillian swallowed hard as she looked up, seeing the others in the room. "I mean how many people in this world don't even know their own name?" She looked up. " This is absolutely . . . you two are absolutely amazing. How did you manage your way through all of this?"

Laura spoke to Jillian's question. "In life, you take the challenges you are given and do the best you can with them. A very wise man once told me, "You go on. Because that's the only choice any of us ever have."

Still soothing his oldest daughter, Remington smiled at his wife, remembering those words.

Through all of this, Laura kept an eye on Braden who appeared to have turned into stone on the sofa. Having known her son and his thought process for many years, she sensed this wasn't going well. Avoiding all eye contact he spoke. "I need time to think." Braden pushed off the sofa and headed down the hallway. They heard his keys being scooped up, the front door open and then being closed rather soundly.

No one spoke. Remington felt all along that Braden might have the biggest mountain to climb with all of this. He had his mother's analytical approach to problems, and that can make situations like this very hard to deal with. He expected that there would be many questions to answer as they moved forward. He and Laura had agreed to provide the basic information and then fill in necessary details when asked.

 **Steele Future**

Kathryn and Jillian found their brother right where they expected. Sitting behind the desk at the agency. He saw them coming as they pushed the agency doors open. "What are you doing here?" Braden didn't offer to move. "I said I needed time to think."

Jillian leveled her gaze at him. "You've had several hours. Want to talk?"

He shook his head no.

"So your just going to sit there thinking until . . . what?" His youngest sister could be like an old dog with a bone and she wasn't going to let go. "Why not put your thoughts into words?"

"I don't believe you want to hear what I'm thinking." Braden continued to sit in the chair behind the desk with his feet up on the desk.

Kathryn sat down across from the desk. "I'd like to hear. If you can tell me what you're thinking, I can listen."

Braden leveled his gaze at his oldest sister. "Why did they wait until now to tell us all of this . . . stuff?" Braden paused to see if he was going to be stopped. Kathryn motioned with her hands for him to go on. "I'm here at the agency working on my license. Have been for sometime now. Why didn't they tell me about this?"

Kathryn leaned back looking at the older brother that always seemed to be a step or two ahead on most every new challenge. She knew she'd better choose her words carefully. "This 'stuff' as you called it, clearly packed quite a punch and you don't lay that on someone before you feel they are ready to handle it. If I followed the sequence correctly, the telling of this family history, once started, had no stopping place."

"So?"

Jillian had held back as long as she could. "Clearly, the timing was still not right for all three of use. Some of us were more ready to hear this 'stuff' than others." She walked around the desk pushing his feet off the desk and sitting on the edge looking down at her brother.

"Look." He straightened in his chair. "I don't like hearing what dad's early years were like. Unbelievable." He paused and looked down for a moment. The silence seemed to speak as he tried to find his next words. "I understand that hearing how Mother had to try and get the agency going was . . . a surprise. It sure was to me, anyway." His voice began to gain volume and he waved his hands in the air. "But do you understand this whole business was built on a complete fabrication?" He wrinkled his brow. "Are we just supposed to assume that there will be no further problems from all of this . . . this history of the agency?"

"What?" Jillian looked around at her sister and could tell the lid was about to blow. Jillian just looked back at her brother and shook her head. "Oh, brother!"

Kathryn came around the desk the other way. "I'm going to assume you actually heard everything Mother and Dad said at the house, so I have to figure somewhere in the information flow your brain just shut down and your feelings froze. This information isn't about possible upcoming problems." She seemed to have heard her own words. "Good grief! You're the criminology major here. I seriously doubt our parents murdered anyone and everything else that might . . . might have been done was covered by the statue of limitations long ago." She pushed herself forward and continued on. "This is about both our parents and their lives years before we came along." She sat down on the desk and Braden found himself with a sister on each side. "Until now, I never thought of you as short sited. In fact, I had you figured as having what it would take to be a good investigator." She took a deep breath to keep from yelling. "How in the world could you be so far off the mark here?"

Jillian jumped in. "Clearly, Mom had a really hard time as a woman getting into the business and then getting this agency started. That part of her story alone was amazing to me. Then Dad walks in bringing his history with him. And history is a neat, tidy word for the sad neglect and abandonment he'd had." She reached over and placed her hand on Braden's arm. "None of us can begin to identify with that. Not you, not me and not Kathryn." She tightened her grip. "We won't ever really get that and Dad doesn't want us to nor does he want us to dwell on it."

Kathryn asked softly. "What's really bothering you about this?" She paused. "Talk to us."

"Why didn't they tell me this years ago? Didn't they trust me?"

"Me?" Kathryn knew she needed to stay calm and on track. "So you feel they needed to have told you about this . . . several years ago?"

"Yeah?" Braden nodded. "Yes, I do."

"So you wouldn't have been as troubled then with all of this as you are now?"

"Yeah."

"That makes absolutely zero sense." Jillian's voice was surprisingly calm. "I think you wanted to know first because you are the oldest and the male in the sibling line." Her eyebrows went up as she lowered her gaze at him "And if Mom figures out that's what's bothering you, you are dead meat!"

"Huh?"

"Why do you think Mom had such a hard time getting the agency off the ground? Why did she have to create a fictitious boss?" Taking a deep breath, Kathryn kept her focus. "It's because people were thinking, just as you are right now. She put everything she had into proving she was good at the job and equal to any case that she was given. I think you need to open up some of the very early case files here and read very carefully."

Jillian chimed in. "Bother you that she taught Dad the business?"

"I think Dad was good at this from the start."

Jillian's hand motioned him to stop, coming very close to her brother's face. "So what Dad said about all he learned from Mom, was just polite rhetoric?"

Braden got a bit of a sheepish look, as he tired to shrug off the question.

"I know how you feel about Mom and I've seen how protective you are of her, but I think you'd better step back and take a hard look at the woman your mom really is."

Jillian pushed off the desk. "I know Mom loves you, but she's going to eat you for lunch if you don't get past this."

"You want some insight into this amazing lady who started all of this, talk to Dad. That is listen to Dad. I know he can tell you who really carried this business in the early days." Kathryn smiled, "I think there are lots of questions to ask and the answers will blow all our minds."

Jillian looked at Kathryn. "I'd always wondered why it took Mom and Dad more than four years to marry." Jillian giggled, "That question made Dad's eyebrows go up and Mom looked rather sheepish."

"What are you talking about?" Braden's curiosity was back

"You left the house way too soon, for several reasons." Kathryn spoke. "Lots of good pieces of information to fit together. We need a good PI who's got his head on straight here." She cleared her throat. "They told us Aunt Mildred knows the whole story, so I for one plan to call her for a lunch date soon?"

"For the moment, you need to get out of Braden's narrow focus and work on the big picture here. These two amazing people, who just happen to be our parents, brought the agency to where it is today and they did it together.'" Kathryn looked hard at the older brother she was trying to get through to. "You study the history of the past for many reasons, and one is to learn what worked and what didn't. In a heart beat, it's clear to me that what made this work is the partnership between these two terrific people."

"I'm afraid to ask, but if their two roles had been reversed would this be bothering you so much?" Braden's youngest sister asked.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Probably not," Jillian conceded. But it seems to me you are hung on the fact that your mother, the former Laura Holt, really got this agency started and then she took on an . . . unusual partner, I'll grant you that, and kept working with him as he got the skills that were needed to become the PI he is today." She chuckled. "Dad's got me watching old movies and I know he loves Myrna Loy. Saw one of her movies just last week where she has to create an imaginary husband to be taken seriously in the business world. 'Third Finger Left Hand', I think was the title. That was the 1940's for goodness sakes, Braden! If you're going to succeed in the business world today you'd better step up and take a hard look around." She chuckled to herself. "There may be another Myrna Loy or better still another Laura Holt ready to give you all the competition you can handle."

Kathryn stood up. "Braden, with what we learned today, things are not the same. What we have is a new normal." She leaned down and put a light kiss on her brother's cheek, then stepped around the desk and picked up her purse. "I for one am grateful they shared what they did with us today. It can't have been easy, because they had to wonder how we might react to it." She held Braden's gaze for a long moment. "I have always felt I had my parent's unconditional love, and today they confirmed it for me. That's a big love." She let her eyes go to her sister. "I for one intend to remind them daily that no matter what, they have my love."

Jillian nodded in affirmation.

"Ready to go, sister." Kathryn pulled her keys out of her purse.

Jillian stood and gave Braden a quick hug. "Why don't you go spend some time at the house? I know two people there who need to see you and want to talk."

Braden stood. "Two against one. Never was fair!" He smiled for the first time since they came into the office.

"Steele sisters!" They waved going out the door. Than Kathryn stopped and stepped back. "Ask Mother how she came up with the name Remington Steele?" She smiled at her brother.

Jillian chuckled, "You'll love it!"


End file.
